What's on my mind and on my plate.

Hi Friends,

Let me begin by sharing a list of procrastination activities I engaged in before I actually sat down to FINISH this post.  As I may have mentioned previously, I write in chunks and then unite the chunks into a readable post.  So as I sit here, I can’t help but marvel at how many things I do to get in my own way that keeps me from hitting publish.  Ok, just for fun here’s what I did in order of procrastination:

Meditation - 15 minutes (essential and not a time waster by any means!)

Played NYT Connections (every morning!)

Journal (productive!  Only 15 minutes tho)

Online search for a lupini bean recipe.  Found one and got the instant pot going.

Made breakfast (this is essential, but still listing because I wasn’t that hungry and made it anyway)

Threw in a load of laundry

Ordered lids for my weck jars

Made an espresso (did not need this at all)

All of the above was done before 8AM. I know! Nuts. Ok, so now I’m back at my desk and making a list of what I want to accomplish today.  This is how my mind works.  I call it “Virgonics”. I can’t recall if my sister Maria came up with the name. She might use it in a sentence like this: “I need Virgonics to help me organize my basement”.  Without going down an astrology hole (another post, I promise), I am a Virgo both sun and moon, and I also have it in Pluto and Uranus. So there’s a lot!  Virgo = service, organizing, practicality, systems, lists.  All me plus a bag of chips! Now if I could just get all of this service energy serving “ME”.

I’ve had a lot on my plate In the health department both literally and figuratively.  I’ve been on a health kick that’s kicking my ass! After a series of metabolic testing (urine, stool, and blood), my results came in with leaky gut, nutrient malabsorption, poor digestion, blah blah blah. I’m sick of myself especially considering my focus and knowledge of healthy food and cooking! I wasn’t expecting this kind of diagnosis and it seriously bummed me out.  Of course I immediately took steps to correct my issues and that led me to another realization: my Virgonics obsession with health and perfectionism is at full steam so maybe I need to pump the brakes and slow it all down.  The big message here is to R E L A X and dwell in the space of calm. To someone like me, the space of calm is as real as Narnia, but I’m trying!

So, what are the good bits that come out of a deep dive into personal health? Great recipes and hacks plus figuring out the correct supplements for what my body actually needs, but most importantly what to avoid.  I love food lists and recipe clipping and I keep them in my iPhone notes app. For example I was investigating the Mediterranean Diet and found a great article on Healthline.com that included a snap shot of a typical weekly menu plan.  I don’t know if y’all know about this little notes hack, but you can screen grab a recipe or whole paragraphs of steps and upload it to notes.  I do this for recipes and I love it!  No need to type it all out. 

Here’s how you do it: 

• Snap a screen shot or multiple shots of your desired content.

• Go to camera roll and crop each tile (no need to see all of that extra crap, just zero in in the text you want to save). 

• Go to select in the top right corner and select the edited tiles.

• Go to the bottom left corner and click on the send box (it’s the box with arrow in it).

• Choose the Notes app and click.

• This will take you to a new note.  

• Write in your title and save.

*tip: make sure to select your edited tiles in order.

This is what it looks like:

On to the food! I began researching anti-inflammatory options and also protein and how to get as much of into my body as possible. I was overloading on brown rice bread so went on the hunt for a gluten free option without it. Good luck! There aren’t many out there but I did find a couple of keepers from a nutritionist I follow on instagram @dominiqueludwig_nutrition. Her gluten free bread recipes are pretty great and have both fiber and protein. She has 3 recipes and I tried them all - flax, chickpea, and red lentil. I made the flax first and they are pretty ugly (think cow pie), but solid and toast well.  The recipe called for golden flax seed, but I used the brown variety  I had on hand, which certainly contributed to the cow pie finish. The lentil rolls were a bust BUT I plan to try again, this time using whole red lentils (cuz I have them). The chickpea  is my favorite and had the best texture and taste overall. I added turmeric and minced fresh rosemary - you can add just about any spice profile you like. FYI: all of the above are actually rolls, but I figure as long as I can make toast or a sandwich i’m happy.  There are loads of gluten-free crackers out there but who the hell wants a runny egg on a cracker. No one. Crackers are for cheese and spreads. Stay in your lane!

Another favorite gluten free option is the life changing bread recipe. There are a few versions out there, but I like Sarah Britton’s from My New Roots.

Once completely cooled (critical) it slices up great and I freeze it for quick toast.

I also love Amy Chaplins brown rice bread recipe and the variations from her awesome cookbook “Whole Food Cooking Everyday”.

Though I had to cool my jets on brown rice, I want to mention it here because it’s amazing and delicious. It’s great to have so many new alternatives.  By the way, I am NOT gluten intolerant, but because of my Graves Disease I should avoid all gluten. There are so many contradictions and it’s crazy making. 

I want to be careful here and not turn this into a rant against the medical community, but I gotta tell ya, I am deeply deeply disappointed with western medicine. I find myself doing all the work myself: researching articles, talking to people, getting opinions across-the-board. Now granted I love this topic and I could spend hours talking about health and healing, but this is sort of exhausting. I just want a medical professional that will listen to me and hear all the different pathways I’ve explored to figure out what the hell is going on. All I get is a glazed look ay any mention of alternatives. I experienced this on a recent appointment with a Lyme specialist. I’m asymptomatic, so I wanted to make sure my issues weren’t related to active Lyme (i’ve had it 3 times so I have the antibodies). I explained my situation and he said 

“I can’t treat you for Lyme because you don’t have any of the symptoms”.  Um, I think I just explained that my history with Lyme is often hard to detect because I’m asymptomatic. He seemed not to hear or simply not care what my experience was. I would even go as far to say he repressed an eye roll!  I went to see this “specialist” specifically because my tests were positive for active Lyme. He was no help at all so I went with my gut and started an herbal LB protocol from Green Dragon Botanical (the also make a preventative formula!). 

Guess what, I finished the protocol and I feel so much better! I had a friend with chronic Lyme for 3 years and Green Dragon brought her back to health.  Lyme is tricky, so don’t think because I’m not including a magnum opus on the subject here, that I haven’t scoured for healing methods.  I guess to sum it up I don’t like taking medication unless I absolutely have to.  I really believe we can heal ourselves with diet and stress management and dedication to our own health.  And that seems like a good place to close, otherwise I’ll start another rant!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Nancy Jo